With the increasing development of artificial intelligence software and the growing popularity of AI-generated art surfacing online, the online art community has been facing backlash. Comment sections on artists’ social media posts can be filled with scrutiny and debate over the usage of AI, as many people believe AI art is disgraceful.
“It’s not real art,” first-year University of Iowa student Elena Brisch said.
For many artists online, gaining a following on social media is an important aspect of their career. However, with the influx of AI allegations, artists are fearful of the possible repercussions posting their work online could bring.
“I’ve watched videos on artists commenting on art drama on social media,” second-year UI art student Mina Nguyen said. “People accused of AI art are bombarded with comments.”
In her class Artificial Intelligence and Art: From Pixel to Print, which starts next semester, UI professor Anita Jung plans to teach the ethics of using AI and investigate the controversial background of the tools. Jung plans to utilize Canva and Adobe Firefly to create unique and original art pieces in the class.
“The ethics of how AI was developed are pretty egregious and definitely infringed on a lot of creative copyrights and aesthetics,” Jung said. “How someone draws is like forging a signature, so forging a drawing style is not a very creative thing to do.”
With these infringements on artists’ unique styles and visual aesthetics, it is clear where the backlash against artists using AI comes from. However, some people on the internet have been taking this hunt for AI very seriously, leaving comments on countless videos.
An example of this is in the comment sections of TikTok or Instagram posts uploaded by primarily digital artists, such as TikTok creator “artists.” Some creators face scrutiny on everything they upload, either due to the uniqueness of their drawing process, the popularity of their art style, or just because a piece looks “too good” to have been done by a human.
“People will take their time to examine each piece of art posted, and people online will tear it apart to find evidence because AI has been evolving and becoming harder to detect,” Nguyen said. “Most are shunned off their platform, like burning them at the stake.”
Even though there is backlash in the media currently, Jung said AI will become a critical tool for a variety of artists.
“No artist I know is just going to punch in a prompt and be like, ‘Perfect, that’s exactly what I wanted,’” Jung said. “I see it more as a tool, like a sketchbook. You have to embrace making things that aren’t good, and fix them. That’s your job, as an artist.”
The use of AI to analyze and study art is something that Jung encourages, along with artists using AI to modify and experiment with their own work more easily.
“It’s really easy to be suspicious and concerned about AI imaging programs as artists,” Jung said. “Yes, it’s going to take some jobs away, but it’s also going to provide other jobs. Technology is always going to be as bad as it is good, and vice versa.”
Despite the dominance of AI tools across industries, many artists still criticize their use for any purpose, especially due to the loss of humanity in AI-generated images.
It takes effort for art students to improve their drawing skills, Nguyen said. Given how many waves, movements, and forms of expression come with making art, it can take years.
This experience brings people together as many artists share the experience and thus connect with each other’s work, she said.
“Practicing art and improving your skill is something you can be proud of,” Nguyen said. “Sure, it’ll take a long time, unlike AI, but you feel proud of achieving something long-term. You can look back and see how much you’ve improved.”